Alive
by sheriffandsteel
Summary: companion to The Difference Between Living and Surviving. Its strange how sometimes five little letters are all one needs to rekindle hope.


So this is a companion to The Difference Between Living and Surviving which is a Bethyl AU set after 4.12. Everything that happened to anyone but Beth and Daryl in the show still happened and that's when this is taking place. Enough people asked me for some clue of what had happened to the other survivors in the universe of my story that I thought I would write something up.

XXX

Conversation was impossible as the sound of the truck's engine and the rushing wind was all that could be heard in the bed of the pickup. Maggie tucked her head against Glenn's shoulder in the desperate attempt to gain some sleep, she had been unable to fall asleep after her turn on watch the night prior. The mid afternoon sun beat down on them with all the promises of a sweltering summer and Maggie found that she was desperate for them to put more distance between themselves and Georgia and all the memories it contained.

Moving her head she cast a quick glance around the truck bed and her companions, who all seemed to be in a similar mindset as herself. Carl was leaning against Michonne's shoulder and clearly deep asleep, Maggie felt a twinge of jealousy that she was not. Next to them sat Rick who was cradling a sleeping Judith in his arms.

A smile came to her lips at the sight of them. Every time she saw Rick holding his daughter or Carl holding his sister her mind could not help but drift back to the day that they had all been reunited.

It had been roughly two months since they had managed to escape from Terminus. Two months that they had spent trying to heal, both physically and mentally from the escape and the knowledge of what the people there had been planning on doing to them. When Abraham had finally been declared fit enough to travel, by himself, the group had headed out in vehicles they had liberated from Terminus. It wasn't like anyone there could use them anymore.

They hadn't been on the road in their stolen pickup more than two days when Eugene had slowed to a stop, his eyes trained to a woman on the side of the road. Sasha had been the first one to recognize her and she had hopped out over the side of the truck before it was truly even in park. Carol dropped her knife at the sight of them piling out of the bed of the truck, tears springing to her eyes as person after person she had assumed to never meet up with again ran into her arms.

The noise was quick to draw things to them, but thankfully the first thing it drew was Tyresse who had Sasha in a bear hug before he had even looked around to see who else was with them.

Maggie always tried not to remember the next part but unfortunately it always came back.

She had gripped Carol's arms like she was the only thing keeping her from drowning as her eyes scanned the forest for more of their lost people to head out of the trees "Beth. Is Beth with you?" Every time she looked at Carol now she could still see the look of pity and remorse she wore as she shook her head no.

"Mika and Lizzie were with us for a while." Tyresse had said as he wrapped a arm around Sasha's shoulder and shared a loaded look with Carol. "They're gone now."

Everyone had sucked in a deep breath at that. It was always harder to hear about children being lost. Maggie let Glenn fold her into his arms but while she was sad for the girls her heart was to busy closing off the last shred of hope she'd had that she would ever see her sister again alive.

"Judith was with us too." Carol whispered as she stared at Rick and Carl whose looks of unbelievable joy were quickly wiped off at her use of past tense. "She was taken from us by this group, they said they could protect her better than us. We've been tracking them since but they outnumbered us."

Maggie felt rather than saw Rick straighten up. "Not anymore. Let's go get my daughter back."

What followed was like the bloodbath at Terminus all over again. They lucked out and once again did not loose any in their own group, they even managed to get Judith back. It all came at a price of course.

The six adults who had been kidnapping children, for what end Maggie was still not sure, were all slaughtered because of their refusal to return Judith to her father. The carnage had seemed unnecessary but the sight of the other children in the house made Maggie feel much more at ease with it. The bruises on their faces stood out like shadows as they stared up at them in fear.

"What the hell were those people doing?" Glenn had asked in a whisper the shock evident on his features.

They did not get an answer to that question and they had to spend weeks trying to reunite the children with their former groups. Those who they managed to find alive had all been stationed in one spot, thankfully. The children whose groups were gone simply stayed with a new one. They could not have the burden of children with them, not where they were going.

All the gore and the work didn't seem to matter whenever Maggie thought about how Rick had eased Judith up off of the pillow she had been asleep on, Carl tight to his side. The child had awoken as she was lifted and had opened her mouth as if to let out a cry, but then her eyes had fluttered open and they landed on her father. The cry turned instead to a bright smile and it was the two boys holding her that shed tears in that moment.

Seeing them reunited had a strange effect on Maggie. She had expected it to cause her to have hope, to make her believe that they would find Beth one day as the sight of Carl, Michonne and Rick being shoved into that train car at Terminus had. But instead it did the opposite. It wiped every last speck of hope from her body.

That night as she lay down in Glenn's arms she rolled over to whisper in his ear.

"I can't keep doing this. From now on, let's just agree that Beth's dead. I can't." she had to stop as a sob threatened to overtake her, Glenn's arms tightened around her but thankfully he did not argue with her on this point. She knew that he knew what she was going through, everyone kept waiting for Beth or Daryl to just appear out of thin air but life was not a magic trick and they had not seen any sign of them since they left the prison. "I can't keep hoping that she's still alive out there."

Glenn had agreed and whether he told the others or not she was not sure but either way, no one mentioned her sister or even Daryl again. A whole week of not hearing their names had not made it any easier for Maggie though.

"What is that?" Tara suddenly asked as she shifted to sit on her knees. Maggie looked up, torn from her thoughts to follow the line of Tara's finger as she pointed off to the side.

A large billboard stood off the side of the road, its original advertising long faded and covered in what Maggie assumed to be ink. The truck slowed to a stop just before the sign after Bob hit the back window to let them know they wanted to see something. Glenn pulled away from her and opened the back hatch of the truck, offering a hand to her after he jumped down.

"Have y'all forgotten we're in a bit of a rush here?" Abraham huffed as he dropped out of the driver's seat, his harsh tone lost by the fact that he had to carefully shut the door behind him instead of slam it shut like he clearly wanted. Maggie could almost not remember a time when noise was not a just an unnecessary risk.

Everyone ignored his usual bluster as they approached the sign and as he followed after them he was clearly just as curious. Maggie stopped just behind Carl, staring over his head at the words coating the sign. She had been right, it was ink. Even more than that, it was names.

Carol reached forward and ran her fingers lightly over the warped metal. "I think its a graveyard." she whispered, not looking up as Tara moved to crouch next to her, her gaze studying a corner with intensity.

"These are all people who died?" Carl asked quietly, Rick placing his hand on his shoulder in comfort. It was a sign of how upsetting Carl truly found the board when he did not shake it off.

No one said anything for a moment as they simply stood and read the names in silence, whether the silence was due to respect for the dead or simply because everyone was simply overwhelmed by the proof of how many people's lives had been lost Maggie was not sure.

"Should we write down who we've lost?" Rosita broke the silence, her tone uncertain as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked around.

Maggie opened her mouth to answer but before she could Tara spoke.

"I don't think some of us have to." she rose a shaking finger to press it lightly against a small loopy name, the familiar handwriting causing Maggie's breath to hitch but it was wiped away completely by Tara's next words. "Herschel Greene." she read off before turning to look at Maggie who simply stared at her open mouthed. "That was your father wasn't it?"

Maggie darted forward, her heart hammering in her chest as she shoved Tara out of the way. She fell to her knees before the board as her eyes took in the sight of far to many familiar names, far to many people they had lost. While she was shocked she was not overwhelmed enough to not notice the name that was not there.

"Who do you think wrote this?" Michonne asked as she knelt besides Maggie, her finger hovering above Andrea's name.

Speechless all Maggie could do was shake her head, reaching up to grip Glenn's hand as he clutched her shoulder.

"I think this might offer an explanation." Eugene's voice came from around the other side of the board. Maggie did not move to see what he meant but she saw the others leave from the corner of her eye. She did not seem to be able to tear her gaze away from her father's name, from the one grave marker he had.

A sudden joyful laugh finally managed to break her gaze and she looked up to meet Glenn's confused eyes. Darting to her feet quickly, the pair stumbled around the metal board where the prisons former occupants all stood huddled. Rick had the largest smile on his face that she had ever seen and Tyresse had pulled Sasha into a jubilant hug, Carl stood with his fingers pressed to the board as he blinked furiously to block off tears.

Maggie could not understand why they were all acting as if the world was suddenly better. This side of the board was just more names, although nowhere near as many as the other side. She opened her mouth to question their antics when she heard Glenn suck in a breath and whisper her name. That was when she caught sight of the word scrawled at the top of the board.

**Alive.**

Her heart suddenly in her throat Maggie basically fell forward, catching herself with one hand against the board as she stood next to Carl. Her eyes scanned the board desperately before they found them. The names of two people she had thought for sure belonged on the other side of the board.

Her fingers moved of their own accord to lightly trace the familiar letters of her sister's name.

"She's alive." the admission slipped past her lips on a whisper as she stared at their names, **Daryl Dixon** and _Beth Greene._

"Well she was when they wrote that but that inks pretty faded." Eugene's explanation was cut off with the sharp sound of a slap and a muffled exclamation of pain.

"We have to find them." Carl announced, squaring his shoulders resolutely as he stared at the group as if daring someone to challenge him.

Abraham sighed and shook his head. "Kid I wish we could but like Eugene said, that inks old." he looked truly remorseful as he stared at them all, his arms crossed tight over his chest. "We have no way to track them. This is likely the only sign of them you'll get."

Maggie saw Carl's face fall and he pushed away from the group to go stand next to the truck. Soon after everyone began to trickle away and follow him, casting one last look over their shoulders at the promise of their friends.

"We have to go Maggie." Glenn whispered by her ear softly. Swallowing Maggie nodded, she knew Abraham was right and that this was likely the only sign she would ever see of her sister again but at the sight of those words the hope that he was wrong began to stir inside of her. Raising her finger to her lips she pressed a kiss onto them before placing her palm flat against the small section of their names.

As she turned away and slipped her hands into Glenn's she made herself and Beth a promise that this would not be the last time that they crossed paths. As Maggie walked the remaining feet to the truck one word began to beat in her mind to the tempo of her pulse.

_Alive, Alive. Alive._


End file.
